Most of us don’t see through our own eyes. Even as you read these words your brain is looking through the lens of your past experience in order to come to a decision on whether or not you should read on. Fortunately for me, if you’re still reading I’ve either tweaked your curiosity or you’ve read or listened to my work before and so you trust where this may be going.
Let me start off by saying that fear is one of our greatest motivators. It’s also amazing at turning you into a stupid and irrational human being. Have you ever heard the story about the man who was stuck for days in a barn after seeing what seemed to be a snake opposite him in the shadows until another man came along and helped him to see clearly that it was in fact just a piece of rope!
Everyday we go around convincing ourselves that ropes are snakes. Maybe your parents are evil, maybe your girlfriend can’t be trusted, and maybe you’re too fat because there’s nothing else to eat.
Shadows of our past aid us in creating and accepting disempowering stories that keep as at a stand still and before long we have a serious case of PLOM (Poor Little Ol’ Me).
We’re all guilty.
When I was younger, I thought a girl could never like me because I didn’t like myself. When I quit my job I thought my Dad would be disappointed and judge me. When I started my blog and podcast I thought “Who am I to think I have something to say?” These are all prime examples of seeing snakes in ropes. Letting the ego dominate.
“We are masters of complicating our lives and justifying why we do it.” Phillip Mckernan
Although society, the news, your friends and family have some influence on your perception of reality, ultimately what you finally see is of your choosing.
A great teacher Dr Wayne Dyer past away a few weeks ago and I have since felt compelled to re-visit a few of his books and video seminars, in particular ‘Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life’ his key message being that we create our own discomfort NOT external forces.
“Human beings are deciding beings” Dr Viktor Frankl
If you can find just one snake in your life and see it for what it really is and understand that you have the power to decide how you want to react to that given thought or situation then this blog post was worth writing.
You have the ability to choose your thoughts, why not choose ones that serves you?
